Hi Friends,
Wow, what a whirlwind the last couple weeks have been! Guess where I’m writing this post? From the inside of my newly opened tiny cafe! But, that’s jumping ahead, lets go back to January 25th…
On the morning of January 25th I woke eager and ready to tackle my to-do list in preparation for opening day of my tiny cafe. At this point I had passed city inspections, but was awaiting the return of my environmental health officer before my final inspections would be booked. I had a few more loose ends to tie up, supplies to purchase, training to do, but was nearing the finish line. The day prior was a Pro-D Day for my son, so instead of chipping away at the mountain of tasks, we had enjoyed the day at the rink practising our skating skills. But, today was a school day, so as 8:00am approached, we readied ourselves and head to the car.
Life threw a wrench in our productivity plans when we discovered that the passenger window of my vehicle had been smashed. Shortly afterwards, we realised that our neighbours vehicle had also been vandalised. Instead of carting our kids off to school and carrying on with our day, we were both now scrambling to clean up glass, call our insurance companies, find repair shops, and arrange for school transportation for our kids. I immediately felt gutted when I discovered the damage. If you’ve read the last few posts, you’ll know that giving back to the community and treating ALL of our neighbours with kindness and respect is extremely important to me. After giving out gift cards, coats, scarves, gloves and food to our homeless neighbours I was quiet disappointed to find my car in this state. In the days leading up to the incident, I’d had a few different folks sleeping in the space next to my car. After seeing the mess that one group had left, I’d asked the next group to please ensure they cleaned up after themselves. I had mentioned that the group prior had left quite a mess, and that they weren’t welcome unless they were willing to keep the space clean. I suppose they weren’t open to feedback, because the very next day I was cleaning up glass. Although, the worst part of the experience was not my upset, the three hundred dollar deductible, or the wasted days; the worst part was the way it’s changed my son. Since the incident, he’s been terrified. He woke several times in the night the first week, didn’t want to be in a room alone, and to this day mentions the incident and looks for people every time we pull our car into our parking spot. I’m doing my best to ensure him it was a one off, and that most people are kind, wonderful people that would never do anything like that, but he’s still struggling.
However, I did do my best to walk the talk that day, and not let one person’s hurtful actions jade my perspective of the larger population. I raged a little at first, and accosted a group of people exiting the methadone clinic. I recognised one of them from the alcove next to my car, and asked if they knew anything about the damage. I explained we are both single Moms, and have done a lot for the community. One of the guys in the group looked at me and asked if I needed a hug. I broke down crying in his arms, and knew I wouldn’t stay mad for long. While I cleaned up the glass by my car I met a lovely lady in the back alley named Jasmine. We became fast friends as she opened up to me about her struggles; I passed along a few things her way, and we’ve kept in touch since. I can’t help myself, I love to connect with people.
Life is weird though, sometimes on a Tuesday morning your crying and cleaning up glass, and by Friday your fielding requests from the local newspaper. Diane had reached out to me back in December, requesting to do an article in the Tri-Cities News about the cafe. Foolish me had not realised that my Good Wolf emails were not in fact forwarding to my personal email account as I had originally planned, and didn’t see Diane’s message until much later. In the mean time, Jeremy had reached out from Tri-Cities Dispatch asking to do an article as well, by that Thursday I had shared with him the story of me and my little cafe. When I asked Diane if she was still interested, she wasn’t sure if there was a story, but after a very passionate response from me, I had swayed her.
By Monday morning, I had done two newspaper interviews, finished up my to-do list and heard back from my environmental health officer. After passing inspection Tuesday, I placed my first order of baked goods, and opened the doors to The Good Wolf Cafe & Co. on February 2nd, 2022 (02.02.22) at 8:00am for the first time.
My first customer was my good friends Skully (previously mentioned King hot dog slinger of Lully’s Food Experience) and Nolan (Lully’s investor and realtor) that drove all the way out from Abbotsford! I burst into tears when I realised it was them. They enjoyed some coffee, chatted about menu plans and way over-tipped. By 9:00 am I was on the phone with the lovely ladies of Spice Radio 1200 AM chatting about how The Good Wolf Cafe & Co. came to be and how we plan to contribute to the community. The rest of the day was a mix of familiar faces and new friends. I made lots of mistakes, like serving luke-warm Americanos because my hot water breaker blew, and forgetting to put whip cream on hot chocolates- which is a cardinal sin. But overall I had an absolute blast.
Yesterday I celebrated one full week open. I still have lots to learn, but I’m loving coming to work everyday. And much like life there are highs and lows. Today is slower, but I’m making the best of it by catching up on the back-end of things, and planning for menu additions.
I can’t thank everyone enough for the support I’ve received on this journey. I can’t believe how many people have come in to say they read the article in the news and wanted to come support. We’ve reached over 500 followers on Facebook and are nearing 400 on Instagram. There’s no way I know nearly 500 people! It goes to show that spreading positivity perpetuates positivity!
Soon, we’ll be announcing our full menu, and a grand opening celebration. It’s all still surreal to me. I know for some it may seem silly, it’s such a tiny business, but for me it’s been a dream for so long, and I know this is just the beginning. If you’re reading this and you’ve dreamed of opening a business or reaching for some goal that seemed unattainable, please go for it. Because, as Teddy Roosevelt once said “at the best [you’ll] know in the end the triumph of high achievement, and- at the worst, if [you] fail, at least [you] fail while daring greatly, so that [your] place will never be those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Thanks for reading.
Be kind, take care and feed your good wolf!
Jerrica